Marijuana Blog

After the federal government’s large-scale crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries throughout 2011 and 2012, the California Supreme Court will now revisit the issue to determine the legality of counties banning dispensaries.

On February 5, the California Supreme Court will hear arguments regarding this issue, which the Legislature has yet to define state laws or pass beneficial regulations.

Though many cities in the state currently have operational dispensaries, several others have seen mass closures. Since no concrete regulation has been set at the state level, local governments are taking on this issue; trying to decide whether dispensaries should be allowed in their prospective counties.

If the court upholds the bans of local governments, it is extremely likely that many more will follow suit.

In San Diego, newly elected Mayor Bob Filner ordered, through a series of memos, the San Diego Police Department’s “targeted code enforcement” against dispensaries be halted immediately.

Current city zoning ordinances do not allow legal areas for dispensaries. San Diego City Council, however, adopted a special “marijuana zoning ordinance,” but subsequently dropped it in July 2011. Under the guidance of city attorney Jan Goldsmith, more than one hundred dispensaries were closed throughout the city.

In response to medical marijuana activists, Americans for Safe Access (ASA), Filner requested that Goldsmith not pursue remaining active cases related to this issue, which Goldsmith agreed to do. Filner, a Democrat, takes a different approach to the issue than his Republican predecessor, Jerry Sanders, who widely supported Goldsmith’s “targeted action.”

With the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington, nationwide discourse on the topic has leaned towards a more progressive approach. The California Supreme Court’s ruling should ultimately provide a consensus on dispensaries throughout the state.

Sen. David Haley, a Democrat from Kansas City, Kan., has introduced the bill, which would allow Kansas to join 18 states and the District of Columbia in allowing people to use marijuana with a doctor's order.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the measure would allow patients to have up to six ounces of marijuana and grow up to a dozen plants at home.

Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, chairwoman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, says the measure won't get a hearing during the current legislative session.

Currently in Kansas, illegally obtaining marijuana for a health condition can mean a year in jail, and growing your own pot can mean up to 17 years in prison

When citizens of Colorado and Washington voted to legalize marijuana in November they created a conflict, because pot remains illegal under federal law and anyone who lights up is committing a federal crime and could theoretically still be arrested for it. After Colorado passed the referendum, Governor John Hickenlooper said the implementation of the law in his state would be a “complicated process” and he warned residents not to “break out the Cheetos or Goldfish too quickly.”

While it seems unlikely that the federal government will make much of an effort to arrest pot users in Colorado or Washington—Obama has said he has “bigger fish to fry”— the tension between federal and state laws on marijuana remains. Just last week, an appeals court rejected a suit that sought to lower the classification of medical marijuana under federal drug laws.

That court ruling threw the issue back to Congress and the Drug Enforcement Agency, which should start a serious reconsideration of national policy toward marijuana. The federal government should start by reclassifying medical marijuana, legalizing it outright, or at least dialing down the penalties. And it should begin to have the sort of serious discussion about legalizing recreational marijuana that is now occurring in the states.